2005 MG TF 160
Turbo Mini Forums

Me and the old man are thinking of getting one of these for my mum tomorrow, its done 8k, at right money and its got all the optional extras.

Its a minter right now, but what sort of things are these things prone to?

Any input welcome

Joe

"Turbo's make torque, and torque makes fun"

"did you know you can toast potato waffles?"

AFAIK they rust around the intake on the rear quarters. other than that i think as long as the roof is sound - ie no mould and all is smooth go for it mate

HEAD GASKETs, although MG have tried to solve the problem with steel head dowels they head gasket still go. I had one for a year from new, most fo the driving it did was motorway mileage. The gasket went about 2 days before I traded it in.

I seriously recomend you check which tyres have been fitted, the goodyear GSD2 are the ones you want, the GSD3 really bugger up the handling. If the GSD3 have been fitted you will more than likely want to change the tyres if feels so bad like it wants to swap end all the time.

Yeah i also heard that if you buy one be prepared to replace the head gasket apparently a common problem.

Headgasket is the result of any cooling problem....

Its not that they just blow a gasket!

alex

AlexF

Dunno how much use this is, but this is what wiki has got to say about it:

"The F is well-known for its poorly designed original head gasket and head gasket failure is a common cause of breakdown[citation needed]. Although the early (pre 2000) MG Fs had Nylon dowels for locating the head to the block, these were updated in 2000 to metal. This stopped one cause of head gasket failure when the head would move very slightly against the gasket.

In the 2005 model year updates, MG Rover added a low coolant sensor to the MG TF, which should virtually eradicate the problem from the car when coolant loss is at fault as the driver will be warned prior to any serious damage occurring. Destined to be introduced with the EUIV emissions compliant engine in late 2005 was a revised triple layer gasket and strengthened oil rail. The aim of the latter is to improve engine rigidity. But this was never introduced on the MG TF made by MG Rover Group as the company failed before it was introduced.

In the MG TF which will be launched by Nanjing Automotive in 2007, the 'N' series engine (basically the aforementioned EUIV compliant K Series) will have these modifications as standard."

Edited by Badger on 14th Jun, 2007.

There is no sense crying over every mistake- you just keep on trying til you run out of cake.

Water pipes that run front to back rot out I believe, shouldn't be a problem on a 2 year old car but then with good old Rover group you never know.....

Rust came standard on most Rovers, I think it even had a part number.

One day I would like a thred that mentions the K series engine and someone doesn't mention the head gasket only to be countered by they are fine. It is not as if they are even that difficult or expensive to change.

All I can say regarding the TF is that you get what you pay for. Not as good as an MX-5 (IMO) but a reasonable 2 seater drop top.

http://www.twin-turbo.co.uk
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A man without a project is like a like a woman without a shopping list.

AlexF

One mod that does help the problem is using the elise remote thermostat housing. Less thermal shock to the engine, not really sure on the workings but does work well aparently.

HGF is far more common on rear engine k series cars which does tend to indicate the coolant pipes and thermal shock arguement.

I have had everything from Metro GTi, rover 214,216, MGZR 160, MGTF 160. The only one I had a problem with is the MGTF.

Although I did have the head off all off the metro when it was ported.

I have worked on just about every k series you could think of from 1.1 - 1.8 and the only problems that they ever seem to have is HGF. Most of them were plastic dowel types. Nearly all of them seem to go between the oil and water ways.

The only one that bust out the side of the block was my MGTF.

I would still buy another at the right price and condition, nice run about car.